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The 12th Congress of the Communist Party of China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Lowell Dittmer
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Extract

On 1 September 1982, 1,545 delegates and 145 alternates convened the 12th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. The meeting was announced in advance (at the seventh plenum of the 11th Central Committee, held in Beijing 4–10 August) and proceeded with well-rehearsed smoothness to its scheduled adjournment 15 days later. The meeting agenda conformed closely to established protocol, consisting of speeches and work reports, discussion and adoption of a new Party constitution, culminating in the election of new members to the Central Committee and other “standing” (i.e. permanently tenured) positions and convention of the first plenary meetings of these organs. The meeting began on 1 September with a relatively brief opening speech by Deng Xiaoping, the presiding chairman (though in a typical gesture to collective leadership there were no less than nine other presiding chairmen), and was followed by Hu Yaobang's comprehensive report and by speeches or reports by Ye Jianying, Chen Yun, Li Xiannian and others. These documents were all published as part of a general effort at greater publicity that included prior announcement of the dates of convention and adjournment, invitation of more than 70 responsible persons from democratic parties, non-Party patriots and other well-known personages from various circles to attend as observers (as had been done previously during the Eighth Congress), fairly detailed reporting of the election of deputies, their assembly and daily activities, arrangements and so forth, and even a sort of press conference that Zhu Muzhi, spokesman of the conference, held for Chinese and foreign reporters – although no foreign Communist Party members or foreign journalists were permitted to attend the Congress itself.

Type
Recent Developments
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 93 , March 1983 , pp. 108 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1983

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References

1. Xinhua, , Beijing, 6 September 1982, as translated in Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), 1:173 (7 09 1982), pp. K11–12Google Scholar .

2. Fu, Tian and Zhixin, Wang, “A brief review of the CCP National Congresses,” Renmin ribao, 30 08 1982, pp. 4–5Google Scholar .

3. “Deng Xiaoping's address,” Xinhua, , Beijing, 1 September 1982, in FBIS, 1: 170 (1 09 1982), pp. K1–4Google Scholar .

4. Ibid..

5. “Historic transition, historic meeting,” Renmin ribao, editorial, 31 August 1982.

6. Ibid..

7. Hu Yaobang interview with AFP delegation, in British Broadcasting Corporation, Summary of World Broadcasts, Pt. III: The Far East, FE 7113/C/l, 25 August 1982 (hereafter AFP interview).

8. “Build the Party into a strong core for leading the cause of socialist modernization,” Renmin ribao, editorial, 10 September 1982.

9. “Hu Qiaomu on the significance of the new Constitution,” Xinhua, , Beijing, 13 09 1982Google Scholar , in FBIS, 14 September 1982, pp. K3–12.

10. “Hu Yaobang's report to the 12th Party Congress,” Xinhua, , Beijing, 7 September 1982, in FBIS, 1:174 (8 09 1982), pp. K1–30Google Scholar .

11. Gailong, Liao, “The reform plans of the Chinese Communists in 1980,” Qishi niandai (The Seventies), No. 3 (03 1981), pp. 38–48Google Scholar . For a translation of the original address, see Xiaoping, Deng, “A speech at the enlarged meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee (delivered on 18 August, passed after discussion by the Politburo of the Central Committee on 31 August),” in Issues and Studies, Vol. XVII, No. 3 (03 1981), pp. 81–103Google Scholar . For a perceptive analysis, see Si, Shen, “Restoration, not reform: on the PRC's Geng Shen reform,” Zhong Bao Monthly (Hong Kong), No. 18 (06 1981), pp. 19–22Google Scholar .

12. “HuYaobang's report”.

13. As Hu Qiaomu notes in his explication, “The role of a convener is obviously different from that of a chairman. Thus, it will be difficult for the phenomenon in which power is overconcentrated and arbitrary decisions are adopted by an individual to occur … where there are both a chairman and a general secretary, one of them would usually be nominal.” “Hu Qiaomu on the significance of the new Constitution,” Xinhua, Beijing, 11 September 1982. The second reason is specious, for during the period from 1945 to 1956 the CCP had both a chairman and a secretary, and both had real power. The real concern seems to have been to foreclose the possibility of a revival of the personality cult. It is also interesting to note that the elimination of a Party chairman coincides with restoration of a chairman of the state, underlining the separationof Party and state and a disinclination to allow Party domination of the state.

14. AFP interview.

15. Sisheng, Hu and Min, Chen, “Elections – Eye-catching moment,” Renmin ribao, Beijing, 11 09 1982, p. 4Google Scholar .

16. Wei, Gan, “Many special features in list of alternate Central Committee members,” Da gong bao (Hong Kong), 15 09 1982, p. 2Google Scholar .

17. “Hu Qiaomu on significance”.

18. “Ye Jianying's speech,” Xinhua, , Beijing, 6 September 1982, in FBIS, 1:173 (7 09 1982), pp. K11–12Google Scholar ; see also “Chen Yun's Speech,” in ibid. pp. K18–19.

19. “Deng Xiaoping's address.”

20. “Strive to create a new situation in all fields of socialist modernization,” Renmin ribao, editorial, 14 September 1982.

21. “HuYaobang's report.”

22. Gongwen, Fang and Xinli, Zheng, “The grand, scientific strategic objective: studying the second party of comrade Hu Yaobang's report to the 12th Party Congress,” Guangming ribao (Beijing), 11 09 1982, p. 3Google Scholar .

23. AFP interview.

24. Quarterly Economic Review of China, Korea, North, The Economist Intelligence Unit (Hong Kong), Third Quarter, 1982Google Scholar .

25. AFP interview; “Hu Yaobang's report.”

26. Yun, Chen, “Discipline inspection commission's report,” Xinhua, , Beijing, 11 September 1982, in FBIS, 1:177 (13 09 1982), pp. K9–12Google Scholar .

27. Min, Wu, “Communist faith and theoretical cultivation,” Renmin ribao, 3 09 1982, p. 5Google Scholar . Guangming Daily reported recently that fewer than 16% of the Party members had continued education beyond high school and that even fewer possessed modern technical skills. These statistics suggest that educated youth may be bypassing the Party, giving rise to a two-track system of social mobility. Of China's 1,280,000 university students, only 3·8% are Party members. Nearly two-thirds of the population is less than 30 years old, but of the 1,600 delegates at the Congress, only 40% were described as “young or middle-aged”. New York Times, 6 September 1982, p. 6.

28. “The decade of domestic turmoil confounded the criteria of right and wrong, good and evil, and beauty and ugliness,” he said “It is much more difficult to undo its grave spiritual consequences than its material ones.” “Hu Yaobang's report.”

29. Tian Fu and Wang Zhixin, “A brief review.”

30. “Hu's report.”

31. Qinli, Shen, “On the Party spirit of Communist Party members,” Renmin ribao, 10 09 1982, p. 5Google Scholar .

32. “Hu's report.”

33. This is ironically counteracted by the general (though implicit) anti-Mao orientation of this Congress. Mao's portrait was not hung as usual in the Great Hall of the People, and no commemorative activities were held on 9 September, the sixth anniversary of Mao's death. Although Mao's Thought continues to receive lip-service (e.g. the Constitution states that the Party “takes Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought as a guide for its action”), Mao must now share authorship with a collective including colleagues he had politically renounced.

34. Yun, Zhang, “Strengthen the concept of discipline, consciously abide by discipline,” Renmin ribao, 15 09 1982, p. 3Google Scholar .

35. Quoted in “What the new Party campaign means,” China Daily (Beijing), 1 09 1982, p. 4Google Scholar .

36. Cf. “G.Z.'s” rebuttal, vigorous, “Sometimes foreign press can be wrong,” in “It seems to me” column, China Daily, 10 09 1982, p. 4Google Scholar .

37. “Chen Yun's speech.”

38. “Hu's report.”

39. “Deng Xiaoping's address.”

40. Xinhua, , Beijing, 11 September 1982, in FBIS, 1:176 (10 09 1982), p. K15Google Scholar .

41. Gan Wei, “Many special features.”

42. Wei, Gan, “Analysis of the new Central Committee and advisory commission,” Da gong bao (Hong Kong), 11 09 1982, p. 2Google Scholar .

43. Of the nine newly-elected members or alternate members of the Political Bureau, six are erstwhile members of the Secretariat.

44. Xing, Qi, “Personnel mobility in the 12th Congress,” Qishi niandai, No. 153 (10 1982), pp. 16–19Google Scholar .

45. Bonavia, David, “Stalemate in Peking,” Far Eastern Economic Review (Hong Kong), Vol. 117, No. 38 (09 1982), p. 16Google Scholar .

46. Mu Fu, “A pragmatic congress of continuing de-Maoization,” Qishi niandai, ibid. pp. 14–16.